Showcasing Visual Stories Through Lifestyle Photography

Gone are the days of simple and stiff product photos that would leave customers wondering whether or not they will fit their lifestyle. Customers look for images that inspires them to build a better life. Lifestyle photography succeeds in accomplishing the same.

Lifestyle photography works on the principle of “show, don’t tell” by showing a person using a product in everyday life. By creating a personal narrative through visual storytelling, lifestyle photography aims at helping potential customers identify themselves with the brand and the product.

In this blog, we will discuss what lifestyle photography is, how it benefits marketers, some industry examples, and what makes House of Blue Beans the ultimate choice.

Lifestyle photography is a style of photography that aims to capture moments in authentic and natural surroundings. Unlike traditional photography, which focuses on posed and formal shots, lifestyle photography tells a story about the brand and the product through context, intending to capture the essence of the product by documenting it through interactions and emotions.

Due to its ability to showcase products in a contextual setting and help businesses establish and reinforce their brand presence, lifestyle photography is widely used across the industry. Be it fashion and apparel, health and wellness, home decor and interior design, food and beverage, or technology and gadgets; lifestyle photography has helped different businesses create meaningful and visually compelling images that reflect the brand’s unique personality.

What Industries Use Lifestyle Photography?

Businesses across industries utilize lifestyle photography to develop a deeper connection with the target audience and invoke a desired lifestyle.

The following industries use lifestyle photography depending on the marketing goal and audience they wish to reach.

Home Decor: Lifestyle photography shows home decor items and interior design through marketing campaigns. The goal is to capture living spaces, furniture, and lifestyle products in a way that reflects a desired lifestyle. 

Take, for example, a brand that offers modern and minimalistic design. It has a well-put-up office which has a desk with a minimalist design, an ergonomic chair, and shelves where books are placed neatly. The goal of the photograph here is to present a visually pleasing office with interior design items that will enhance the productivity and creativity of the customers while they work.

Another example could be this image showcasing a person sitting on luxurious bedding, fluffy pillows, and a throw blanket. This image aims to convey a sense of calmness and relaxation, inviting their target audience to imagine themselves winding down and enjoying a movie or show on a laptop.

Technology and Gadget: Technology companies use lifestyle photography to showcase products in real-life settings. It features individuals using gadgets like smartphones, laptops, smart home devices, and more in everyday scenarios like a cafe or an outdoor environment. 

Take, for example, a smartphone brand that wants to portray itself as a solution provider for integrated devices. A lifestyle photograph might show a person using their smartphone to navigate while trekking or using it as remote access for smart home devices.

Another example could be this image where a person is tracking the number of kilometers they have run through this mobile application and pedometer watch. This can inspire people to put their smartphones to good use and live a healthy life.

Fashion and Apparel: Lifestyle photography is widely used in the fashion and apparel industry to showcase clothes and accessories in real-life settings. It primarily involves models wearing the clothes or accessories of a specific brand and engaging in day-to-day activities like shopping, socializing, or walking in the city. 

Take, for example, a photograph showing a woman wearing a flowing maxi dress and a wide-brimmed hat relaxing on a beach with the ocean in the background. This image will invoke a sense of relaxation and connection to nature, evoking the desire among the female audience to integrate this bohemian lifestyle and wear clothes from this brand as a symbol of personal expression.

Another example is this image, which shows 2 friends checking the dress quality they plan to buy. Through this photograph of happy customers, the brand aims to portray they make clothes that their target audience finds worth buying.

Food and Beverage: Lifestyle photography shows food and beverages in relatable contexts. These images may include people enjoying their meals, cooking in the kitchen, eating out with friends and family, or savoring delicacies in a snug environment. 

Take, for example, this image featuring a group of friends gathered around a table, engaged in deep conversations and laughing, while there are spread of different delicacies and freshly brewed hot coffee around. Through this image, the brands capture a sense of community and want to convey that they aim to be a part of the customer’s happy times.

Another example is this image where a group of friends enjoys a cocktail alongside the pool. Through this image, the brand wants to convey how their refreshing and thirst-quenching beverage can be your partner in good times.

Fitness and Wellness: The fitness and wellness industry utilizes lifestyle photography by showcasing people indulging in various activities. It portrays people doing physical activity, practicing yoga, and engaging in sports activities. These images aim to inspire and motivate individuals to live an active, balanced, and healthy lifestyle. 

Take, for example, an athleisure brand that wants to promote an active and healthy lifestyle. Their lifestyle photograph might feature friends engaging in a high-intensity outdoor workout while wearing the activewear of a particular brand. This image aims to inspire viewers to find joy and motivation in exercising.

The image below shows a woman practicing meditation using headphones and listening to something on the phone. The brand encourages people to indulge in self-care routines and wellness practices to lead healthy lives.

What Are The Benefits Of Lifestyle Photography To Marketers?

No matter how great a product you have, you need to market it properly to avoid missing out on massive revenue-generating opportunities. Since the impact of high-quality images is instantaneous, lifestyle photography can serve as a profitable way to showcase your product to the intended audience due to its benefits mentioned below.

Enhanced Storytelling: Every brand has a story to tell, and telling a brand story can be pretty challenging. This is where lifestyle photography can be put to use. Marketers can use lifestyle photography to tell a visual story by capturing emotions and interactions to engage viewers and attract them to the narrative. A compelling story has the potential to evoke emotions, generate curiosity and boost customer engagement with the brand.

Create emotional connection: A business needs to develop an emotional connection with the audience, as it boosts customer loyalty and lifetime value and can drive word-of-mouth marketing, thereby strengthening a business’s position in the market.

Marketers can utilize lifestyle photography to forge and reinforce an emotional connection with their target audience. A high-quality and well-conceptualized lifestyle photograph has the potential to evoke feelings and aspirations in the viewers through relatable and contextual visual content. This will thus increase the likelihood of them engaging with the product and exploring it further.

Enhanced Appeal: Marketers can use lifestyle photography to showcase the product in real-life settings. By demonstrating the product’s features, benefits, and functionalities in a scenario relevant to the target audience, marketers can enhance their appeal and help customers visualize the product in their lives.

Build Brand Identity: A well-defined brand identity is essential for a business to make it stand out from the competitors and create a sense of familiarity among the customer base. Marketers can use lifestyle photography to convey the brand’s identity and personality. This can play a significant role in visually differentiating the brand from the competitors. 

The meticulous selection of sets, models, and props can help a brand communicate its identity. Moreover, consistently utilizing lifestyle photography can help a business create a cohesive brand image and reinforce brand recognition.

Boost Organic Reach: Organic reach is a cost-effective way of engaging with your target audience, but it is also a method that solely relies on the quality and relevance of content to the customers. 

Marketers can use lifestyle photography to create content that resonates with their target audience. This will increase the likelihood of the message sharing in the customer’s network, thereby organically spreading the word about your product. This amplification and virality can significantly expand your reach, expose you to a new audience, and increase brand awareness and recognition opportunities.

Versatile Marketing Collateral: Lifestyle photographs can be a universal marketing asset across platforms like websites, social media channels, catalogs, blog posts, and marketing campaigns. Sharing consistent, visually appealing, and shareable content across other platforms in a way that resonates with the audience can drive engagement, increase organic reach, and bring in more customers.

Increase Engagement and Conversions: Once you have attracted your customer, engaging them can be challenging, but well-executed lifestyle photography can increase user engagement and drive conversions. When the customers visualize themselves using the product and imagine the benefits it will bring them, it can significantly impact their purchase decision, encouraging them to purchase.

Why Is Hiring A Professional Service Provider Better Than Doing Lifestyle Photography In-House?

Now that you know how lifestyle photography can significantly impact your business, you must wonder what and how to start with the process. But if you plan to do lifestyle photography in-house, you need to think again.

While doing lifestyle photography, in-house might give access to the creative process and complete control over resource allocation and expense, it can still be cost-extensive and time-consuming. Let us consider why hiring a professional lifestyle photography service provider would be wise.

Experience: Professional lifestyle photography service providers come backed with knowledge, experience, and expertise in operating and using different tools and techniques to get the right image with light, composition, and effects that will showcase the best angle of your product.

Doing lifestyle photography in-house means you must train your existing staff or hire those with the experience and expertise, which will require a significant investment of time and money.

Cost-effective: Other than the cost incurred in training your staff to be skilled in lifestyle photography, you must invest in purchasing and maintaining different tools and equipment like cameras, lenses, editing software, and more. Adding to the cost would be the burden of ensuring that this software and tools are up to date, which could mean investing in a new tool now and then.

With a professional lifestyle photography service provider by your side, you don’t have to worry about investing in any tools or software since they will have access to the latest tools and technologies. They will ensure exceptional image quality with clarity and attention to detail, which can be challenging to achieve with the limited resources that you have in-house.

Time-efficient: Managing lifestyle photography in-house can be difficult as it requires you to dedicate your time and other resources, which will divert you from other important tasks like simultaneously working on another project.

A professional lifestyle photography service will give your team the time to focus on the core business activities. Furthermore, their expertise in coordinating teams and managing the entire production will result in seamless execution, saving you time and effort.

External View Point: Having worked with different businesses from across industries, professional lifestyle photography service providers will bring a fresh perspective to your brand and the product. They will develop innovative ideas, diverse approaches, insights, and strategies to highlight your product and convey your brand’s message in a manner you might not have considered. This external viewpoint will transform your visual storytelling, helping you stand out from the competition.

House Of Blue Beans- Your One-Stop Solution Provider For Lifestyle Photography Requirements.

House of Blue Beans will be your one-stop solution for all lifestyle photography requirements. We strive to capture the essence of your unique lifestyle and tell your brand story visually in the best possible way to showcase your brand and the product through captivating visuals.

We believe every product has a unique story, and our photographers are here to bring it to life. They specialize in capturing intricate details, texture, and aesthetic appeal of the product in such a manner that it will evoke desire and increase engagement. Whether it’s fashion, home decor, or beauty, our team of talented artists will craft images with such meticulous attention that each image will showcase your product in the best light.

We take pride in having helped leading brands and Fortune 50 companies like Lowe’s, Henkel, Honeywell, Target Retail, and more with stunning lifestyle photography that helped elevate their brand and drive sales.

House of Blue Beans offers the following services.

Images: Revolutionize how your target audience experiences visuals through our top-of-the-line image service. Our skilled artists employ cutting-edge technology to transform ordinary images into captivating, lifelike masterpieces. Whether you are looking for a white background image, lifestyle image, or 360 spins, we have covered you.

Lifestyle Image: Bring out the essence of your brand through visually captivating lifestyle images that will tell a unique and engaging story. At House of Blue Beans, you can choose between a standard template or a customized one. 

• Standard Template: The standard template comes with a pre-built design which means all that must be done is place the product image in the design. We have a huge library of templates with themes and designs covering major industries, home decor, furniture, consumer electronics, fashion, and more. 

If you are restricted by time and budget, we would suggest using standard templates. Since most of the work is already done, and all that is required is the placement of product images, you can generate images or videos quickly and easily.

Since they speed up visual content creation, standard templates can also be used for prototyping and iteration purposes. They are a time-efficient and budget-friendly option for prototyping since they eliminate the time and money that goes into creating visual content from scratch. Furthermore, they can also be used to gather user insights and feedback to iterate the design process.

Our process of using a standard template to create images or videos looks like this:

• You will send us the reference image for the product.
• We will create a 3D model.
• Upon approval, we will render the product image in a 3D model.
• Customized Template: The customized template offers you complete creative control to create the entire design from scratch, ensuring that the visual content aligns with your brand guidelines and standards.

Customized templates allow you to place various design elements like texts, images, and more per your preference. Furthermore, the customized templates come with interactive controls like sliders, handles, and more which can be used to adjust different aspects like size, animation, etc.

Our process of creating images or videos from customized templates looks like this:

• We will share the mood board with you once we have the reference image and brand guidelines. 
• Once approved, we will create a layout depicting the visual content’s appearance.
• Then, we will customize the template by adding the product image and making changes per your brand guidelines.
• Once done, we will render the image.

Aside from being tailored to the goal, customized templates offer the following benefits:

• Shorter go-to-market time: Customized templates are helpful in situations where the marketing trends keep evolving since they serve as a quick and easy way to create a wide range of visual content by making changes in real-time. Furthermore, since any element in the customized template can be modified, brands can use a single template for multiple purposes over time.
• Brand Consistency and Differentiation: In this cut-throat competitive landscape, it is important for a brand to have a unique personality. Customized templates allow a brand to implement their guideline and brand aesthetics. This helps a brand stand out and plays a crucial role in maintaining consistency.
• White Background Image: Enhance the product’s visual appeal by letting it take center stage. Our team of skilled artists and editors will help you present high-quality, professional-looking images with a clean, crisp white background that will shineyour product. We understand the importance of visually striking images in driving conversions and hence secure the services of state-of-the-art equipment and our expertise in lighting techniques to create images that will elevate your brand’s presence.

360 Spin: Offer your customers an engaging and interactive experience with our 360-spin services. We will help you create 360-degree spin images that give your customers a new perspective on your products. Your customers will be able to get a virtual hands-on experience in our 360 Spin images, no matter what industry you are in, whether you’re in e-commerce, retail, or even automotive.

3D Models: Unlock the limitless possibilities of the third dimension with our 3D model service, which will transform your concept into a stunning 3D model, thereby bringing your ideas to life. We provide a comprehensive range of 3D modeling services tailored to your specific requirements using our state-of-the-art technology and team of highly skilled designers.

Video: Change how your audience consumes video content. You can create immersive and interactive videos with us to engage your audience and drive conversion. Whether you want a white background, functionality, how-to, product, or inspirational video, House of Blue Beans has covered you. Take a look at this video we created for a client showcasing how their watch can help keep the weare’s health in check

• White background video: Make your product the star with visually striking white background videos that will grab the attention and drive conversions. Whether you’re an e-commerce retailer, or product marketer, with our editing process and quick turnaround times, we will ensure that you present your audience with polished videos to enhance your brand’s visual presence.
• Product Video: Showcase the unique features, benefits, and value your product offers to the customers in a visually appealing and convincing manner with our product videos. You can count on our team of storytellers to craft engaging narratives that will captivate your audience and drive conversions for your brand. Whether you’re launching a new product, promoting an existing line, or expanding your e-commerce presence, our customized product videos can help leave a lasting impact.
• How-to video: Transform how your customers learn about the nuances of the product with our visually engaging how-to videos. You can trust us to create interesting and informative how-to videos that empower your audience to succeed in their tasks and master techniques. Our how-to videos will ensure an interactive and immersive visual learning experience for your audience. Check out this video displaying how to install a fence.
• Functionality Video: Bring your product’s features and functionality to life and let its capabilities shine through with our functionality videos. After working closely with you to understand the product intricacies, our team of professionals will create engaging and informative videos highlighting your product’s unique functionalities and benefits. To engage, educate and inspire action, our videos will help develop a connection with the audience by demonstrating how your product will address and fix their problems.
• Inspirational Video: Engage, inspire, and motivate your audience towards a positive change with our inspirational videos. We hold expertise in creating visually compelling and emotionally engaging videos that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. No matter what you’re hoping to accomplish, our inspirational videos are designed to inspire imagination and drive positive change. We have created this video for a client showcasing an inspiring lifestyle.

Architectural Visualization: Capture your customer’s attention by transforming architectural concepts into visually stunning, immersive experiences. With our expertise in architectural visualization, we ensure that everything from materials and lighting to spatial arrangements and ambiance is accurately represented in 3D renderings and walkthrough animations. Whether you are an architect, a real estate developer, or an interior designer, we will help you transform your ideas in a way that develops an emotional connection with your target audience. Checkout this 3D interior rendering video we created for our client.

AR/VR Experience: Merge imagination with reality and take your customers on an immersive journey that will redefine product experience. Our team creates immersive augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences that engage users on a whole new level. With us, you get a 360 shoppable room and a visualizer app. A 360-shoppable room allows customers to visit showrooms and shop for products virtually. The visualizer app, on the other hand, lets them check whether or not the product will suit their lifestyle by allowing them to visualize the product in different conditions. In this video we have a created a 360 shoppable room displaying how a product will fit in customer’s life.

Social Media Content: Use social media to give the spotlight your brand deserves with House of Blue Beans. Our team specializes in creating visually stunning and engaging social media posts that drive engagement and build a loyal following. We hold expertise in developing content that stops scrolling, whether it’s eye-catching graphics, thumb-stopping animations, or compelling infographics or videos.

So what are you waiting for?

Partner with House of Blue Beans to capture your product’s and brand’s essence and develop a deeper emotional connection with your customers by presenting them visually compellingly through our lifestyle photography services.

Reach out to our lifestyle photography experts. Today!